Randall Friesen

It’s not just my teeth that are running at a midlife level, so are my eyes. This year especially, my eyes have taken a turn for the worse and if I read close up or in the dim light, like in bed, then I need to hold the book 4 inches from my face and remove my glasses.

The regular reader to this space will recall that I am in the midst of a reading frenzy, trying to complete a small stack of books and write papers on them.

Because of the new difficulty with my eyes, I have become a font snob. I don’t need no small curly fonts when I’m mowing through data. I need some good old Times New Roman so I can get the stuff into my head, at a rate acceptable to the deadlines laid out for me.

One of the books in particular, should be 300 pages but to save money they shrunk the font and made it a little prettier, perhaps as a distraction, I don’t know. It’s presently around 190 pages. And I’m “mowing” through it at about a page every 5 minutes.

SO, I figured out my solution would be to go to a drugstore and get me some of those high power reading glasses and get busy with the book.

And no.

I tried them all on, did the tests, tried again, but they were all blurry for me.

Nothing worked. Maybe with prescription glasses, reading ones don’t help. I’m not sure.

But I’m back to sitting in bright light, late at night, reading. No reading glasses for me.

My world is getting smaller, shrinking a bit as I focus on class work and reading for class and my work at the church, so I crave open spaces again.

Yeah, didn’t take too long to abandon a nice colourful design for the site.

But I’ve been thinking, again,

LAURALEA STOP READING NOW…

Actually she’s like me in the whole clutter thing, she just doesn’t need to be worried about my mad random thinking.

And now that she’s not reading, where was I…

Oh yeah, “one”

What if, we had kinda like just one of the stuff we needed.

You know. Like one, or perhaps two but no more than three,

pens?

or,

One pencil.

One purse or briefcase.

One scissor. Or is it one scissors?

One radio.

One plate per person.

One vehicle.

One bible.

One salt shaker.

One quilt per bed.

One outdoor hose.

One box for useless papers.

Or one useless paper.

One couch.

One box of storage.

One coat.

One pair of underwear.

Well, ok, the idea breaks down. But you get what I’m after here?

We go through life gathering stuff that sticks to us. Then our job becomes that of stuff storer, and as we age we gather more stuff and need homes for our stuff.

My kids grow up and leave home and when they leave, boy do they have stuff. Not junk, well mostly, but stuff. We’ve taught them how to gather stuff, I’m just not always sure we’ve taught them how to not let the stuff own you.

That is a tricky one, because stuff accumulates around you as you progress through life.

You need a certain wrench or pen or marker or scissors for a certain need. Then when that need is met, you are still left with the tool you required, so you rightly save it, because you just paid for it and may have need of it again. This is good stewardship.

But then you end up hauling that tent around for the rest of your life, the one you used for just that one trip camping and have never wanted to use again.

I don’t know, there are no easy answers here folks.

Well, unless you have a quonset in the back yard you can use to hold all your stuff.

Collecting or gathering is passive, it happen to you as you progress through life. But divesting yourself of your stuff needs to be active. It takes a deliberate act on your part to lighten the load.

To get rid of. To give away.

I’m not saying I have a handle on this yet people, I’m just saying I’ve been thinking…

Which can always be dangerous.

As near as I can tell my last dentist appointment was two and a half years ago. Not that I’m an anti-dentite, but you know, why poke a stick into a hornets nest if there is nothing wrong with them being there.

Anyway, my local dentist and support staff got tired of nagging me to come in, so they finally just booked an appointment for me and told me to be there. And I, who teach them the value of mutual submission, was duty bound to be there this morning at 8:30am.

Turns out I only have two cavities and for me that’s hugely small. Can I say that? Hugely small? You see usually I go for the big numbers, 5, or 7 or even 9 cavities after such a holiday from the dentist. Maybe my kids luck or whatever it is with cavities is finally rubbing off on me. Or maybe it’s just getting old.

One small cavity and one bigger one on a tooth that has already been filled to capacity, so there is really not much tooth there to work with. That may need to be crowned.

Now if only I can figure out this eyeglass reading thing.

Pregnant man gives birth to baby girl.

via.

Really.

I told you so.

If you are reading this from bed, just stay there today. Start new tomorrow.

and I have so much work to do that it’s freaking me out.

I’m going to find a quiet, cooler place to get things done.

If you need me, just call and leave a message. Or call and leave a message with my wife. Or write an email. Or send me a letter through the post. Or send me a telegraph.

or…

?

Trying.

I received the news on Monday, that the day before a friend had died, violently.

Just south of Edmonton, on a very busy stretch of highway.

His wife is in the hospital. She should physically recuperate.

But he is gone.

And so you get on with the work you need to do.

But its like there is this heaviness nearby, and when you stop to turn around and look again at what it is, you are confronted again, with his sudden death.

And I feel like violently retching. Sick to my stomach.

So the day plunders on. Heart heavy, eyes moist, stomach uneasy.

If you think on them, please pray for the family.

And so another July 1 rolls around, Canada’s Birthday.

Woo Hoo, happy birthday Canada. What is it now 141 years old? I have friends with houses older than you. But none the less, Happy Birthday.

I have become convinced that Canada Day celebrations are for kids.

Micah is away at camp and well the girls are no longer here, only Thomas is here and he’s hardly even up yet.

But previous years would see us get involved in some city celebrations and activities and then end the day by attending fireworks at the river.

Not so much today.

I’m doing homework and Lauralea is doing some chores or something.

Ooh my, what a great way to celebrate the Birthday.

We are learning new ways to be a family I guess. Maybe we’ll go out later and look around at the celebration activities. (bbbboring…)

Or maybe I should just focus on this mad homework rush I am in for a couple of weeks.

But happy birthday Canada. You don’t look too shabby for 141 years.

Another grad celebration as we head out to the restaurant of the grads choice. A Friesen family tradition.

I hope it’s good food tonight. That would be fun.

But yeah, everybody passed, so we are going to celebrate.

Down to two kids this year.